In 1904, while still working on his translations of Ruskin, Marcel Proust wrote to Maurice Barr(('e))s "I still have two Ruskin's to do, and after that I shall try to translate my own poor soul, if it doesn't die in the meantime." Within a few years Proust would begin this translation of his "own poor soul"--the monumental Remembrance of Things Past, one of the great literary works of the 20th century. In this volume of Proust's collected letters the reader is carried inside this pivotal moment in a great writer's life. In a letter to Louis d'Albufera he lists the projects he has in hand: "a study on the nobility, a Parisian novel, an essay on Sainte-Beuve and Flaubert, an essay on Women, an essay on Pederasty (not easy to publish), a study on stained-glass windows, a study on tombstones, a study on the novel"--all subjects that eventually found their way into Remembrance of Things Past. The letters are intriguing for what they say about the work, but they also offer an intimate portrait of the man--the sometime invalid recluse, sometime socialite. This long-awaited volume will be welcomed by scholars and general readers alike. The letters offer a special insight into the man and his art during a crucial period, and they are as delightful to read--as beautifully crafted, witty and poignant--as his fiction.